Dr Christos Astaras

Alumni

Originally from Thessaloniki, Greece, I obtained a BA in Conservation Biology from Middlebury College, Vermont, USA (1999) and subsequently a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University, Toronto, Canada (2002). For my doctoral studies at Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany, I spent 2006-2008 in the rainforest of Korup National Park, Cameroon, studying the ecology and conservation status of the endangered drill monkey (Mandrillus leucophaeus).

Since 2013, I have been the project coordinator and co-principal investigator (PI) of a Darwin Initiative project (Ref# 20-012) which piloted the use of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) in Afrotropical rainforests as a way of improving the capacity of protected areas to effectively design and evaluate anti-poaching activities based on robust field evidence. Using a grid of acoustic sensors, we have collected >3 years of continuous data on gunshot records in a central area of Cameroon’s Korup National Park providing unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution on gun hunting patterns. That data is currently examined in conjunction with concurrent bushmeat consumption, bushmeat seller and hunter surveys in the region and records of game guard patrols. In 2014, we established a similar grid within the nearby Rumpi Hills Forest Reserve as part of a US Fish and Wildlife Service project (Ref# F14AP00503) of which I am a co-PI. Together with my collaborators in these projects from James Madison University, Cornell University and the SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund, I assist rolling out the use of PAM in more protected areas both in tropical and temperate climates, including my native Greece. You can read more about our preliminary findings on gun hunting monitoring using bioacoustics by visiting our Darwin Initiative project’s website and reading the annual reports at Darwin Initiative’s page.